So, today I uncovered another generation in my ancestry search, which apparently my grandmother knew about completely but didn't care to mention. That's so like her. Anyway, my great-great grandma is Augusta Winberg, born Augusta Bergman. She was born in Sweden in 1869 and came to the US in 1902. She moved to IL in 1911, and died in 1913 of pneumonia, 5 days after giving birth to my great-grandmother. My gg was originally named Anna, but when she was adopted by the Larson family they renamed her Ina. No one really knows why. I also learned that Augusta married John Winberg, who was Swedish, but born in Finland. I'm unsure how old he was, but some online searches lead me to believe that he was 10 years younger than her...but he could also be 10 years older. Or the same age. Anna's birth certificate is kind of hard to read. By the way, I got all this off of Anna's birth certificate and Augusta's death certificate, which I now own photocopies of. You'd be surprised how much info you can get off of those things. Like the fact that Augusta had 7 children, was a housewife from 1904-1913 and a cook before that. I'm just guessing, but I think she got married in 1903 or 1904, not long after she came to this country. As far as I can tell using the ellis island search engine, she did not go through there. Also, I know where she is buried.

But you know what's really annoying? Finding this all out, and then hitting another brick wall as to the next piece of the puzzle. One, because I don't want to pay anything to ancestry.com or any other such site, and two, because all the records other than Augusta's death certificate are in Swedish. Maybe someday I will find a marriage license for Augusta & John in English that would uncover a few more clues, but other than that, all I know is "Sweden." I do not even know where in Sweden. I don't know her father's first name, and I don't know her mother's last name at all (it was listed as "not known" on the certificate). And, of course, it showed no info for John other than his name as that he was a carpenter (Anna's certif).

This does, however, put a date to when my family (of this line anyhow) came to the states: 1902. I need to talk to my aunt again, but this is about the same time the Swanson family came over from Småland, Sweden (my great-great-grandmother as well).

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying with all of this is that I envy those brits who can trace their lineage back to the 1600s or earlier.